Nexus
A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Yuval Noah Harari is one of my all-time favorite thinkers. We have featured each of his previous three great books: Sapiens, Homo Deus, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. As per the sub-title, this book is “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.” It’s a compelling, sobering look at the challenges we face as AI becomes more and more integrated into our lives. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Big Ideas
“We have named our species Homo sapiens—the wise human. But it is debatable how well we have lived up to the name.
Over the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have certainly accumulated enormous power. Just listing our discoveries, inventions, and conquests would fill volumes. But power isn’t wisdom, and after 100,000 years of discoveries, inventions, and conquests humanity has pushed itself into an existential crisis. We are on the verge of ecological collapse, caused by the misuse of our own power. We are also busy creating new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) that have the potential to escape our control and enslave or annihilate us. Yet instead of our species uniting to deal with these existential challenges, international tensions are rising, global cooperation is becoming more difficult, countries are stockpiling doomsday weapons, and a new world war does not seem impossible.
If we Sapiens are so wise, why are we so self-destructive?”
~ Yuval Noah Harari from Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari is one of my all-time favorite thinkers.
We have featured each of his previous three great books: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
It’s hard to put into words just how much I admire the logical coherence and clarity of his writing—not to mention the breadth and depth of his thinking. It is breathtaking.
As per the back flap of the book, Harari is a historian, philosopher, and bestselling author. He is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals. Born in Israel, Professor Harari received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.
He is currently a lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. He co-founded the social impact company Sapienship, focused on education and storytelling, with his husband, Itzik Yahav.
As per the sub-title, this book is “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.” It’s a compelling, sobering look at the challenges we face as AI becomes more and more integrated into our lives. I HIGHLY recommend it. (Get a copy here.)
The book is packed with Big Ideas and we’ll barely scratch the surface. Let’s get to work.
P.S. Check out our Notes on Jonathan Haidt’s great books for more powerful, sobering wisdom on the challenges we face in the 21st century: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, and The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
History isn’t the study of the past; it is the study of change.
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